By GREGORY ZELLER //
A working farm known for cultivating educational opportunities is inviting visitors to take a walk and smarten up.
Of course, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County means that in the nicest way, now that it’s unveiled a new “interactive walkway” on its 272-acre Suffolk County Farm and Education Center in Yaphank.
Funded by multinational gas and electricity utility National Grid, the walkway is a living promenade lined with user-friendly stations, each designed to engage visitors and highlight CCE Suffolk’s wide range of program areas. In addition to basic agriculture, marine sciences, horticulture, gardening and camping skills all get hands-on attention.
The interactive walkway is an “immersive experience that captures the essence of CCE’s multifaceted programs,” according to CCE Suffolk Executive Director Vanessa Lockel.
“The visitor center and walkway will together help the farm carry on its tradition of community learning that dates back more than a century,” Lockel added.
The learn-as-you-go walkway fits right in at the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center, an animal farm and working agricultural farm (check out this year’s buckwheat crops) that welcomes 20,000-plus schoolchildren and more than 100,000 visitors annually for day trips focused on sustainability, history and nutrition.
Llama-rama-ding-dong: Friends (furry and otherwise) unite to officially open the new “interactive walkway.”
The open-to-the-public educational center also hosts summer day camps, an environmentally themed preschool and other back-to-nature special events, including scheduled visits to the farm’s circa-1871 haybarn, an official designee of the National Register of Historic Places.
But the farm – all in on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 4-H Positive Youth Development framework and recently crowned as New York State’s first certified Nature Explore Classroom – is more than just an educational resource.
It’s a living, breathing summation of New York State’s fourth-busiest agricultural county, according to a comprehensive 2019 report by the Office of the New York State Comptroller that counted 560 separate Suffolk farms generating upwards of $225 million in annual revenues.
“The [Suffolk County Farm and Education Center] is emblematic of the leadership role that this county plays in New York State’s agricultural sector,” Long Island Farm Bureau Director Rob Carpenter said in a statement. “Its far-reaching educational agenda deepens Long Islanders’ understanding of the world of agriculture.
“We applaud CCE Suffolk and National Grid for the tremendous work they’ve done here.”
